Donations pour into food bank

Just seven days ago the freezer at the Emergency Food Bank and Family Services Stockton/San Joaquin held just seven turkeys.

That's not good when you consider the nonprofit estimated it needed 2,000 frozen birds to distribute to the hungry - most of them working poor - at its annual turkey giveaway on Monday.

But you people are good peeps.

And because of that - one week later - Friday's turkey count had climbed to 2,091.

"I am so thankful for the response from the community at large. Organizations have come through. Businesses have stepped up. People have been so good," Rebecca Knodt, executive director of the nonprofit, said. "This is amazing and what's so incredible is that 60 percent of the donations we are seeing are from people who have never donated to the food bank before."

Knodt said it's been an emotional experience for her to read the letters and notes attached to the gifts.

"Some of these letters are just, wow," she said. "People are writing and saying they were hungry once and now that they can afford to help, they want to give. Others write that they realize how fortunate they are and they want to share."

Then Knodt told of the efforts that were still taking place on Friday - the volunteers braving rainy weather to help San Joaquin RTD "Stuff the Bus" at local Food 4 Less stores, schoolchildren who were dropping off the fruits of their canned food drives, and one organization that promised a sizeable check.

In this struggling economy, the pantry has seen an increase in the number of clients it serves and $43,000 in federal funding the pantry was counting on this year never arrived.

So when the food bank put out a plea for help, the response was not only generous it was downright creative.

One Stockton woman made it her Facebook status.

"I am so overwhelmed by the amount of money that people have donated," Sonia Langford said of the $11,300 that she, her family, friends and neighbors had drummed up as of Friday afternoon. "I encouraged all my friends to donate and I acknowledged each and every donation on my Facebook page. I feel blessed, thrilled, and honored that people responded."

Dr. Derron Lee of Midtown Optometry and Manteca Optometry made a YouTube video challenging viewers to match his donation with one of their own.

One student council made a bird-for-bird deal.

"We collected 79 turkeys and student council will match that," Hilary Sanguinetti, the student council adviser and computer teacher at Annunciation School, said. "We also collected an entire pickup truck full of canned (food)."

On Thanksgiving, the pantry's annual Run and Walk Against Hunger will take place and participants will be reminded that they have a lot to be thankful for on this holiday.

Knodt, though, already is counting her blessings.

"People are so good," she said. "This is amazing. I hope their generosity continues because Christmas is coming up and that's 2,000 more turkeys we need."